The awarding of a $180,000 contract to purchase six Crew Cab Trucks from an Ottawa area dealership, stirred up some debate at North Bay City Council Tuesday night.
A staff report indicated the vehicles will replace the existing fleet. It went on to explain that three of the six vehicles are no longer in service and are "straining operations." The vehicles were removed from operations due to "failure and safety challenges." It was determined that it was not cost effective to repair them. The remaining three trucks are functioning on a "day to day basis."
See: Buy local debate delays city truck purchase
The city received six bids, five of which were local. The difference between the two lowest bids is roughly $11,000.
Councillor Mark King opened the discussion saying he would support this recommendation when he voted against a similar recommendation a few weeks ago.
"The reality is the lowest bidder wins. In the original report that didn't pass council, we did not have a pricing of the second tender. It was all scored rather than priced, and that was the only reason I didn't support it because I have no idea what the actual price was for the vehicles. So this made it very clear to me as to where we were going."
Derek Shogren and Daryl Vaillancourt were the only two city councillors to vote against Tuesday's recommendation. Councillors Mike Anthony and Tanya Vrebosch were absent from the meeting. Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette declared a conflict of interest.
Shogren told council that what local dealerships do for the community is worth more than $11,000. He acknowledged that council has rules to follow, but suggested this is one rule council will have to look at, to see if more weight can be given to local bids.
"We had some councilllors say we had no choice. Well if we had no choice, why is it even being brought to council? If it's being brought to us, then I'm going to speak my piece. If we save $11,000 on a tender here, but maybe have a business that's ticked off, and decides not to invest another one to two million dollars into the community, do we really save money? I think that local bids need to have some extra consideration for all they do in the community," said Shogren.
"Almost every dealership spent millions of dollars expanding their business in North Bay. Some of them pay upwards of $160,000 in property taxes, and many of them give anywhere from 50 to 100 thousand dollars in sponsorship to the local community, and that's got to count for something going forward. It's a frustrating exercise. It seems to have happened a lot, and I'd love to know if other municipalities are buying trucks from us."
Councillor Vaillancourt expressed his own displeasure with the process.
"I don't think that an $11,000 saving is justification enough to go outside of our community. I don't see why any tenders come to council. If our decision quite frankly is just rubber stamping something, then we should take a look at the purchasing policy as a whole and just leaving it with staff."
Council Chris Mayne says he understands it is frustrating for people who want to support local business but says council's hands are tied. Mayne says in order to get the best value for the taxpayer dollar, council is legally required to honour a fair and transparent bidding process.
"We all value supporting local business, but these aren't rules, this is legislation applied by the province of Ontario. This isn't something we have local discretion over. All municipalities are required to accept the lowest tender unless there is some specific reason why they don't qualify for the tender. So if you want to take this up with the provincial government, we can do that," said Mayne.
"But in the meantime, the legislation that is in place provides North Bay businesses with a fair and level playing field when they bid in other centres as well, like Ottawa, or Toronto, and not face the risk of not getting the business because they're not liked as much by the local council, even though they may be less expensive."
Councillor Mac Bain said council can't be in a position where it puts itself or the city in jeopardy.
"We would be doing something illegal and opening ourselves up for issues, legal and otherwise if we went anywhere else. It is frustrating to have this kind of discussion around the council table when we now the rules.We want our staff to operate by the rules, and the public expects us to operate by the rules."
Councillor Jeff Serran says local dealerships will still get some revenue.
"It is important to know that any follow-up service will be done locally. We'll be supporting our local businesses through any work that may need to be done on these vehicles."
